Changes
by Not Just a Nerd
Summary: Set after the Series Finale. Now that Mary has let Marshall go, everything changes. Or does it? Mary x Marshall.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own In Plain Sight, or anything else references here.**

* * *

It's Marshall's first day as her boss, and she's determined to give him trouble, just for the fun of it. And also so he gets the message that _nobody_ is her boss. Which he knows anyway, it'll be a shame if he didn't, after spending so many years as her partner and best friend.

She enters the Office whistling loudly, searches for Marshall, and catches a glimpse of him in his new shiny Office, talking on the phone, with Abigail, she assumes. So she heads straight for the coffee counter instead.

Delia joins her there. Looking as chirpy as ever, she leans in closer to Mary like she's about to say something top secret- which only makes Mary take five steps away at the violation of her personal space. What happened to the No-Delia-Within-Three-Feet-Of-Me rule? She wonders, as Delia begins talking softly. "Did you hear that Marshall and Abigail are fighting over their wedding plans?"

Mary rolls her eyes and keeps quiet- her baby woke her up three times last night, and she has a feeling that if she starts yelling now, she's not gonna stop- hoping Delia will get the message.

Of course she doesn't. "I've heard him talking about how much he wants origami to be a part of decoration. Apparently she doesn't. I'll tell you what, if I was Abigail, I would…"

As Delia drags on, Mary grabs her coffee from the counter, takes a sip, grunts at how it tastes, yells out a loud "Hey, Marshall, I think you need to buy a new coffee machine", and _then _she faces Delia. For the first time, Delia notices how Mary's eyes are sagging and she looks tired. She's about to open her mouth again and point it out, but Mary beats her to it. "Ok, first of all, if I wanted to know about Marshall's wedding, I can just watch the E! special, or ask _him, _so you can take your gossips to tmz or CDAN or whatever it is that you read, I don't need you to fetch me gossips, about Marshall, about anybody. And second, if your job here is overhearing people's personal conversations on the phone, why don't you get me a decent cup of coffee from that café two blocks away? Marshall will pay."

She rants at one breath, and before Delia can blink, she's inside Marshall's office, intruding into the conversation.

He looks up at her with questioning eyes.

She grins the wicked grin that tells him she knows exactly what's going on and is here to watch him suffer and enjoy. Sitting down on the chair in front of him, she takes another sip from the same coffee, while watching Marshall's eye-brows twitching in irritation, and _now _it tastes good.

She loves how he can't go further than one syllable, "Look..", "Ab..", "No..", "I'm.." before he finally says he has urgent work and hangs up.

She shoots him a "you will amount to nothing in life" look. "Origami? Really?"

He closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath. "Delia?"

"Yep", she chirps. "I think this Office needs an upgrade. How about you sound-proof it?"

"We're not sound proofing the Office", he tells her firmly.

"Ok", she shrugs. "Then how about metal doors and hiring aliens as security guards?"

As if to prove her point, Delia peeks her head in.

"Yes, Delia?" Marshall tries his best to sound patient- with everything that's been going on in his life, it's kind of hard- as well as intimidating, since he's the new boss. Of course it only manages to get a snicker out of Mary.

"Mary wanted coffee", Delia states, coming in and placing the creamy cup on the table.

"Wow, you're fast", Mary remarks, secretly regretting not sending her for coffee all this time. Hey, this new arrangement thing can work out- with Stan gone and Marshall as the new boss, there's no one to stop her from ordering everyone else around, she can virtually run the whole damn place!

"No, actually, I made this myself." Delia starts excitedly, "It's from my grandmother's secret recipe. She used to-"

Mary cuts her off. "-Does this mean Marshall doesn't have to pay for the coffee?"

"Of course not, this one's on me." Delia says sweetly, and then looks at Marshall. "Do you want a coffee too? I can make you one from helps relieve stress. I know that all the wedding stuff-"

"-No, thank you", Marshall tells her, along with a glare.

This time, she gets the message, she leaves quickly.

"Can you believe _she_ will become a US Marshall someday?" Mary wonders out loud.

Marshall shrugs, trying to be politically correct, and optimistic, as always. "Well, she has her abilities."

She scoffs. "Like what? Making coffee and pastry? Please, _Annie Frank _is better than her."

"Annie Frank is awesome." Marshall protests.

She scoffs again. "She's a blond little US Marshall who's running after fugitives. She's a lame ass version of me. Someday I'll sue the producers for copying me so improperly." She finishes with a shrug, and tosses the now empty coffee cup into the trash can. "Speaking of lame, what's up with origami?"

He sighs. "Abigail doesn't want origami on our wedding."

Mary nods. "Good. At least one of you is half normal."

Marshall ignores her insult, having grown resistant to them over the years, ever since he figured out that her "The man called Inspector Marshal Marshall Mann" joke stopped when he stopped reacting to it. His jaw tenses, and his eyebrows knot together to form a V. "I've wanted it all my life. It's not just her wedding, it's mine too. It's just a little thing. Marriage is a combination of little things like this."

"Oh my gosh", she whines not too quietly. Here comes his sappy little lecture on human beings. What is he doing at Witsec again? He _needs_ to be the new Doctor Phil.

He continues, ignoring her, once again. "It's about compromises, and putting the other's needs above yours." He pauses, thinking about how she doesn't get his friendship with Mary. His father had a best friend too- though male, and more polite than Mary- and his mother always understood. So why doesn't Abigail? He wonders. "If she can't deal with this, then… I don't know."

"See why I didn't get married?" Mary grins. "Who's the loser now?"

He grins back, momentarily forgetting his own problems. _Finally _he's got her. "Oh, but you _did _marry."

"Yeah, but the guy didn't want origami!"

He shakes his head in disagreement. "You would have let him put origami if he _really _wanted it." He challenges.

She huffs. "Yeah, and then I would have taken my gun and put a bullet hole through each and every little one of them on the wedding day."

"Ha-ha-ha", he says dryly.

She gets up, pushes the chair back in with a half-kick, and looks at him, locking her eyes with his. His jaws relax somewhat, and his eyes soften around the corners. She gives him a half-smile. "Look, just explain to her how much you love that stupid thing. I'm sure she doesn't know that- she hasn't seen your making origami every day at the Office. Once she knows, she'll understand. She's a reasonable girl, isn't that part of why you too are so good together? And that steady and stable and boring crap?"

She nods, he nods back, and they talk in their unspoken telepathic language- that Delia can never hear, take that, Sunshine! Mary thinks in the back of her mind.

When she leaves the room, of course Delia is right there. She doesn't even try to pretend she wasn't listening. "You're a good friend, Mary," she tells her.

"Best friend", Mary corrects, and then just to prove how fluent she is in the language of sarcasm, adds. "Didn't you see us get matching tattoos and bracelets?"

* * *

It's a lazy day, there's not much to do, just paper work- no witness has broken the rules and gotten into trouble yet, and she still hasn't had the privilege of finding out what it feels like to travel without Marshall all the time.

Mary sits in her chair, her hair tied up in a messy ponytail, as she tries to keep writing and fight back the yawns. She hates paper-work, and she actually wishes some would screw something up just so that she can go out.

It definitely has nothing to do with the fact that Marshall's desk is missing from across hers after all these years, and she can't shoot off insults at him every time she feels bored.

Her phone rings, and she groans, answering it, hoping it's not bad news. "What now, Brandy?... No, you will absolutely not dress her up… because dressing up is stupid… I don't care if you're the aunt, I'm the mother!... you dressed up the dog… Abigail likes stupid things. Can't you see it? She's marrying _Marshall_… I don't care, you'll not… not till I get home and see what you have in mind…. Good, let her sleep… play with whatever you want, she has enough toys… ok, look, I have to go, be careful with her, and yourself, ok, squish?"

She hangs up and lets out a frustrated sigh. Around the same time, Marshall comes out of his Office and sits in front of her. "Is everything alright?"

"No", she half-pouts, half-frowns, "Brandy wants to dress up Norah."

"That's cute", Marshall smiles.

She gives him a glare that makes him raise his hands up in surrender. "What are you doing out of your Office?" she asks, as he places some file on her desk and begins reading it.

He shrugs. "I was getting kind of bored in there, all alone."

There's a warm tugging in the pit of her stomach, a kind of fluttering in her heart, and she realizes that she's missed him, missed having him sit on the desk across hers and blurt out useless little trivia that made her aim her pop-corn at him instead of Delia. It's good to see that _everything _isn't changing. She hates changes, has hated it ever since her dad went away and everything changed.

She doesn't really know what to say to that. And before she can think of anything, there's someone in the Office.

"Dad?" Marshall asks, as both he and Mary stand up from their seats. "Is everything alright?"

His father nods, aiming another nod at Mary as a form of greeting, "I just came in to see how your first day as the new boss was going."

"Oh", Mary relaxes, plopping back down on the chair, and grins. "I thought you were here to talk about the Bachelor's Party. Can you believe he wants it to be Star Trek themed?"

Marshall pleads her with his eyes not to do this, not to makes things awkward for him like this, and immediately changes the topic. "It's been a slow day here, there's not much to do. Why don't you come inside my Office for coffee?"

Mary gives him a glare, mouths a "I'll get you", and returns her attention back to the boring file-work.

Marshall and his father go inside their Office. Delia follows after a while, with the coffee. And this time, Mary _is _curious to know what they are talking about.

Delia doesn't disappoint. She brings Mary another coffee and sits down in the chair in front of her. "They are talking about the wedding. And something about you."

"What about me?" her eyes go wide open in panic. "_Please _tell me Marshall's dad doesn't want me to wear a dress or something. I went over this with Marshall already. I like my jeans." She says, patting her thigh as if to emphasize her point.

"I don't think it's about that", Delia reassures, patting Mary's hand, which only get a weirded-out "why-the-fuck-are-you-touching-me" look from Mary. Seriously, can she stop with the PDA? "I heard his father say _"It should be Mary."_ I don't know what they are talking about."

Mary shrugs, some kind of weird restless gnawing feeling suddenly starting in her arms and legs. "They're probably talking about who his best man should be."

Delia disagrees. "But a best man is a man, and you're a-"

Mary gestures with her fingers for her to leave, and thankfully, she does so without finishing the sentence that would have led to coffee cups swinging here and there.

Once again she's left alone with paper-work, but this time her thoughts are dominating her mind.

She has had only one real female friend in her life, and before she died, she had told Mary, "It should be Marshall."

Funny how Marshall's dad sounded exactly like this. So maybe she has an idea what this whole thing is about, and maybe-

Her thoughts are interrupted when Marshall and his dad come out. She stands up- again- mentally cursing at how her back hurts from bending down and picking up her baby all the time.

"Marshall told me you broke up with your new guy?"

She's a little taken aback to see Inspector Mann discussing her personal life with her, so much so that she has to look at Marshall to verify if she heard it right. "Uh, yeah. He had a pesky little kid. I hate kids."

"You _have _a kid." Marshall points out.

"Oh, shut up, don't call the child services", she snarls. "I love _my _kid, it's my kid. But seriously, babies are just a bunch of little annoying devils that only eat and crap a lot. Who needs to date a guy who comes with that baggage?"

Marshall shakes his head in disapproval, Mary mutters a "what?", and suddenly remembers that the two of them are not the only person in the room, it's crazy how sometimes the whole world seems to disappear and her focus is solely on Marshall. She turns to Inspector Mann again. "If this is about taking a date to the wedding, it's ok, I'll hire somebody."

"That's not necessary", Marshall Mann reassures her, and gives Marshall a look that makes him divert his gaze to the wall. She wonders what he means, what is going on.

They exchange goodbyes, Mary asks him about the curling iron one more time, and Marshall finally escorts him out of the building, leaving Mary with her thoughts, again.

And paperwork. "Delia, coffee!"

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**A/N: do you like it so far? Should I continue? Review and let me know! **


	2. Chapter 2

After his dad leaves, he sits back down in front of her, with his files open again. She wonders if she should ask him what they talked about, but decides not to- if he wanted to share, he would have told her.

"We were just talking about the wedding." Marshall tells her, as if reading her thoughts. He could always read her mind.

She nods, doesn't ask for details, and focuses on massaging her temples while she does paper-work. And then because she's Mary, just has to ask- "Did you show him the design for your wedding gown?"

Marshall's protests and three more cups of coffee later, she realizes how long it's been since she last saw her baby girl, and how she is suddenly missing her.

Now that Marshall's her boss, she doesn't see the point of staying late at work and doing the paper-work- she loves the field work, and she loves working with him in the Office, but doing this all day is so boring, and she has a reason to go home now.

So she dumps the files on him, and uses headache as an excuse to get the hell out and get home early. Of course, she didn't really need an excuse- he would have let her go anyway. And if he didn't, well, she would have gone home anyway, why would she ever listen to _Marshall_? If she had, she would have been sitting at a lame Shakespeare discussion class right now, hearing people talk about how two idiots killed themselves for love. Such drama queens!

She really did miss her baby, really did wonder what she was doing at that very moment as she drove in her car, honking and cursing at the "idiot" drivers.

When she gets home, she feels so good to finally see her baby, to pick her up and hold her close to her chest. This mother thing isn't so bad, hey, she can finally call herself a milf! This is one change that she didn't plan for, and yet, this is the best change in her life.

Not that she'll tell anybody or something. Or that the sound of the baby crying doesn't feel annoying in the middle of the night. Or that she will start acting all motherly and wanna dress her up in ridiculous costumes.

"No Brandy", she repeats, firmly. "I'm not dressing her up as Peter Pan! I don't even _like _Peter Pan!"

"Everybody likes Peter Pan." Brandy protests. "Norah is gonna love Peter Pan, right Norah?" she asks in a baby voice, shaking Norah's hands lightly.

Mary scrunches up her nose in disgust. "She can't talk, but _you _can. Stop making that voice, it's weird, you sound like Snooki." She kicks off her shoes and picks up the coke can from her fridge, wondering when the hell she can get back to her good old tequila shots. It's kind of hard to get through all the changes without her dear old friend.

She sits back down on the couch, and watches Brandy holding Norah in her lap, and the Peter Pan clothes in her hands.

She kind of thinks that baby's little clothes are adorable. A fond smile forms on her face as she watches her daughter. She feels like she finally has someone who understands her.

And then a frown darkens her face as she notices something on her baby's skin. "Brandy, is that a rash?"

"Where?" Brandy looks, and shrugs. "I don't know. It looks like one."

"Are babies supposed to get rashes?" Mary asks, already dropping to the floor and studying Norah, like it's an emergency. She can shoot a gun while blind-folded, but baby-stuff is a whole other thing. Suddenly she feels like one of those over-protective mothers than she has always hated. Then again, she's always been a lioness, protecting everyone.

"Didn't you read pregnancy books?" Brandy asks in amusement.

"Yeah, I don't read self-help books, I don't need a bunch of people use fancy sentences to tell me how to screw up, I can learn that just from watching people around me." She snarls, her frown growing deeper. "Now what do I do about the damn rash?"

"Maybe you should ask Marshall", Brandy suggests. "He seems to know a lot about everything, and he likes babies."

That's the most logical thing to do here. Except, he kind of told her to let him go. So it's not like she can just pick up the phone and call him. He's probably home already, and Abigail's around. Nobody told her not to call- but he said he'd come every time she called, and she's not sure Abigail will like that.

But then again, screw Abigail. Yeah, first come, first serve, and she came first, not Abigail. _Marshall _sucked up to her like a wimp, she didn't. If calling him causes problems, well, Marshall deserves it. Couldn't he see this coming with Abigail? She has "gale" in her name, for crying out loud!

With that thought in mind, she picks up her phone and calls. He's number one on her speed dial, has always been. A smirk forms on her lips. She's number one on his speed dial too, take that Abi-number two-gail.

He answers immediately, sounding tired of something, but not annoyed by her call. "Is everything ok?" he asks, concerned.

"You tell me", she scoffs.

He doesn't answer, and she senses his pretty little Nancy Drew is around. That conversation can wait for the next day then. "Norah has a rash. Are rashes normal?"

"It's probably a diaper rash." He assures her, "She's fine, don't worry." And then, as an afterthought, adds, "You really need to read those books I bought you."

"Ok, thanks." And before she hangs up, adds. "I told you to elope and donate that money to my worthy cause of saving the tequila, you didn't listen. You deserve to suffer with all the wedding plans now."

Brandy gives her a questioning look, she ignores it- there's her home-made more-annoying more-nosy version of Delia- and focuses on Norah. "I should have asked him how to get rid of this thing." She realizes, wondering if it is such a bad thing to call him up again. It's not like this would be the first time she's called him twice in the same minute. Hell, she's lost count.

"You can call Marshall again." Brandy points out, but Mary rejects the idea instantly.

"You can just ask someone online", she suggests next.

"That's a great idea, why didn't I think of that one before?" Mary chirps in a deceptive tone of sweetness, "What can possibly be better than a tattooed pothead getting on a wifi from some house he broke into and telling me how to raise my baby? You can be so vulnerable, squish." She finishes with a shake of her head, and decides she's had enough fussing over a damn rash that isn't even serious.

She plops down on the couch again and turns on the TV, heading straight to Disney, that Norah can watch and learn and she can mock, and hopefully as Norah grows up, she can watch her mother and learn to mock.

Brandy has cooked… _something_, so she feeds off Norah, changes diapers, puts her in her crib, and attacks her dinner. It feels… weird, not to be sitting in the Office having take-out food with Marshall, as the street lights lighted up their dimly lit room. It used to be so much fun, with Marshall mentioning useless facts about whatever food they were eating, and her kicking him with her feet every time he did.

She catches herself with her fork dangling aimlessly in the air and Brandy staring at her, and realizes just how she had lost herself in her thoughts. "What?" she asks, and before Brandy can answer, changes the topic. "So any progress on a job?"

"I've been… looking", Brandy sighs.

Mary sighs inwardly. Some things never change. She may be sober and wiser now, but still jobless and living off her. It's like her own twisted version of Two and a Half Men, now with her and Brandy and Norah.

"You don't like Abigail", Brandy says suddenly.

Mary almost chokes on her food. Since when did her little sister learn to read her mind? She rolls her eyes, and tries to play it cool. "What are you talking about? Why would I not love the girl who tried to arrest my sister?"

"You don't think she's good for Marshall."

"Brandy", Mary sighs. She doesn't really know what to say. It's like, Abigail and Marshall are always stable and sensible, agreeing on every little thing. But on the little occasions that they don't, it's a full blown fight, and there's no middle ground, one of them has to win, and the other has to give in. Like how it was about Marshall's relationship with her- and Abigail was totally right, you're supposed to plan your pretty little wedding while your best friend carries on with her long lost and then found father's funeral all by yourself, take notes, losers- like how it is with the wedding thing.

Maybe Brandy is sober and wiser now, because she doesn't push, beyond saying, "You really need to figure things out in your head, Mary."

The rest of the dinner is quiet, and Norah starts crying before she's even done with the dishes. Brandy offers to finish, and so Mary goes into the room to feed her again.

"_Mary, if you're having a baby, we're having a baby."_

She remembers his words suddenly. It's kind of true, she was kind of counting on him to help her with the baby- she can figure out the teenage part, she's dealt with enough bratty witnesses- and Brandy- but toddlers in diapers is a whole new nightmare. The only person who would have known how to deal with it was Marshall.

They were the best team. Between them, they never really agreed on anything. But they could always reach a middle ground- like how they did with her keeping the dog for a week and him eating the food he dreaded. It's like he was the push to her pull.

She's never really thought about it before, never really thought about Marshall- it's like he's been the one steady constant in her life, and she stopped paying attention after a while, he just became a part of her life somehow, the one part that she thought would always be there. Until Abigail came along and-

And she realizes that she's been comparing herself to Abigail all this time. Why in the world? It's not like she's jealous!

Or is she?

Maybe she is, just a little bit. But that's totally fine. She can totally be jealous of someone stealing her one best friend away from her. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with wanting Marshall all to herself.

And then she realizes just _what_ she has been ignoring all these years, and how she needs to figure things out in her head soon, Brandy is right for once. She suddenly remembers how two of their witnesses were best friends who had their own secret language, had always been in love, but could never tell each other. And then the girl had gotten married, and-

Her thoughts are interrupted when Marshall calls. She's surprised to see him calling. Which is totally why her heart skips a beat. "Hey."

"Hey, you didn't ask what to do with the rash."

A smile lights up her face, there's _her _Marshall. Not the one that Abigail holds the strings to these days.

He did mean it when he said he'd be there every time she called.

And she will call. He's all she really has, he's the only one she can turn to and count on when she needs someone, even if it's for simple things like a diaper rash.

He instructs her on the rash, she mocks him, he protests, she mocks him more, they say goodnight and hang up.

She doesn't feel so alone anymore, she knows that he's always got her back. Always.

But it's not _just_ about that anymore, is it?

Damn changes.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you liked the chapter. Reviews would be nice :) The witnesses referenced here are the ones we saw in the previous season, hope you can remember which ones :P**


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, she wakes up with a massive headache and decides she got a bit carried away with all the mushy sappy looks-better-in-reality-tv-when-they-say-it-in-emotionless-voices-with-fake-looks-on-their-faces stuff. So she takes a shot of tequila right after her first two cups of coffee- baby feeding be damned for a day, it's why they invented formula- and heads to work.

She's only half-way when Marshall calls, telling her a witness was caught trespassing into a private property and needs to be rescued from the Police Station. And now she has to turn around and drive to the opposite part of the town to play Prison Break. She grumbles. "Can't you just call your pretty little fiancé and tell her to release him?"

"No", Marshall stutters, "It doesn't work that way, you know that."

She grumbles some more. "Ugh, fine, so where are you meeting me?"

"I'm… not meeting you", he says slowly, to give her time to understand. "I won't be meeting you anymore, unless it's urgent. I'm required to be at the Office now."

"Oh shut up Marshall", she straight out yells. "That's bullshit. I know there's not much work at the Office yet. And when I punch you in the face to give you the perfect pre-wedding make-over and make your amnesia go away, you'll remember that we always did things in a team of two. I'm one Marshal short right now." She snorts. "You can still count, right?"

He always knew how to counter her. "I can send Delia over if you want."

She swears in her mind that she will get back at him for that cruel, evil, unfair, insert-beeps-here threat, and angrily turns her car around, earning a "whoa" from a passing car, and yelling back a "what, jackass? I didn't break any rules".

She calls up Stan to complain. "Marshall is being a tool. You need to tell him to stop before I do something that makes his wedding zombie themed."

Stan sighs. Some things never change. "Mary, I... I can't settle things between you two anymore. I'm not your boss anymore, he is. You guys need to figure things out yourselves."

She wishes his bald head would turn into the body of a porcupine. "Hey, you're still his superior, and I was told at the Academy that I can bring matters up with my boss' superiors, so don't break the rules, Stan. You're just being unfair. You always were, you always preferred Marshall."

"That's not true", he protests, and she knows he's right, but she cuts him off and hangs up with a "whatever" anyway.

And then she's reached the police station. There's something about facing Abigail that's unnerving her, which is weird. Mary Shannon is never scared of anything or anything. Well, besides the stupid morning sickness that didn't let her drink coffee for months- that was pure torture.

She gets off the car, sub-consciously wipes her hand on the pocket of her pants, and marches straight to Abigail. "Hey."

"Hey", Abigail greets back, as if she was expecting Mary to show up.

Her eyes drift to the ring on Abigail's fingers. "Nice nails", Mary blurts out suddenly, surprising even herself. That has to be nervousness. Or the tequila, she decides, yep, it's easier that way.

"Thanks", Abigail blinks, like she's a little taken aback. "I've been undergoing thorough manicure to keep them clean and ready for the wedding." For some reason, Abigail tenses as she says the word, but regains herself quickly, "I've also been going for-"

And then Mary bounces back, cutting her off, "Listen, I'd love to stay and chat and do girl bonding, and gossip about Marshall's brothers and pinky swear not to tell anybody, but I'm here about the guy who was brought in here for trespassing?"

Abigail looks like she expected this exact reaction from Mary. "Right, I figured he's one of yours. Do a bit of paper-work, and he's free to go."

Mary grumbles, follows the steps, curses at the witness while he keeps claiming that he didn't know it was private property till he was arrested. Abigail assists her, keeps it short and professional, and her jaws tense progressively.

The tension between them is almost tangible. Almost. If it actually _was_ tangible, she'd rip it out, crumble it, and shove it into the mouth of the stupid guy yelling non-sense at the background to shut him up.

She's glad when it's over and she's dragging the witness- previously Marshall's, but now hers, she figures- out, all the while blaming him for being so damn stupid.

"Where's Marshall?" he asks, as soon as he's in Mary's car.

She resists the urge to rant about him just out of her professionalism. "He had a promotion. He's in his Office now."

His eyes widen in panic. "Does that mean you're my Marshal now?"

"Yep, I'm happy to have you too, we'll be best friends."

He panics more. "Can I get a new Marshal?"

"Well", Mary bites her lips, "We're a little short of Marshals here, so not unless you're relocated."

"How can I apply for relocation?" he asks urgently.

"You can't", she snaps. They had been through already this when he first came into the program! "Not unless it's an emergency or a security breach, and don't even think about it, you've done enough damage already. Now shut up before I push you out of the car."

Apparently the witness is so scared of her that he listens. Well, good. For him, that is.

She drops him off at his house, telling him again how important it is not to break laws and get arrested, and how he'll get kicked out of the program if he does and she'll feed him to the sharks.

She stops at a restaurant on the way back to the Office to take-out the lunch. Once at work, she sits down in her chair, leaning back lazily, and munching on the delicacies.

"Where's mine?" Marshall asks, coming out of his Office.

Mary fakes a sweet smile on her face. "Aww, I'm sorry, I thought I was supposed to grab lunch for my partner, not my boss."

He shakes his head. "That's such a double standard. You make Delia grab your coffee."

She's not in the mood to let him lecture her though. She changes the topic immediately. "Are you and Abigail fighting so bad that you won't even see her at her work?"

His eyebrows arch up, but he maintains his composure. "This has nothing to do with it. I'm supposed to be at the Office now, Mary. I can't go, not unless it's an emergency."

"Well, you decide what's emergency, this could have been one if you wanted." She points out, shoving an unopened can of food to him. "You're paying. I thought your bride-to-be would cook you healthy lunch from home." she chuckles, picturing Marshall eat the bitterest possible juice. Now _that_ would make her life so much better.

He grabs the can, and glares at her. "Don't even think about giving her the idea."

She grins wide, enjoying his misery. "I don't think I have to, I think she'll do it herself when you stop fighting."

That thought gives him dread, and the thoughts about fighting makes it even worse, so he changes the topic quickly to the witness, and Mary happily starts complaining about him, while Marshall assures her that they will get along well with time.

The rest of the lunch is spent like this. With, of course, Delia spying.

The evening is spent on more paper-work and more bickering. She goes home early again, feeds Norah, and goes to bed early, vowing to sleep properly tonight and not wake up with another damn headache that'll make her punch the wall. Of course she has to wake up three times in the middle of the night to feed Norah again, and barely manages to stumble on the bed instead of just passing out on the floor.

This is so hard, and so tiring. Sometimes she wishes she had someone to help her out...

"_Mary, if you're having a baby, we're having a baby."_

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**A/N: thanks for all the responses. Hope you liked the chapter. There will be more plot development, but slowly, to keep it fluffy :) Please review :)**


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